My 6 Favorite Superhero Movie Costumes

Once upon a time, it was not cool to be a superhero movie. Nowadays, people are gushing about Spider-Man’s next cinematic costume at Marvel, and movie-makers are promising that the X-Men in their new Apocalypse film are going to wear comics-accurate costumes. But back in the day, superhero costumes were too dorky to wear! Do you all remember the original X-Men movie and the matching black leather? That’s what you needed to have to make a superhero movie before they were cool.

Thank God we don’t live in that sort of world anymore!

They were indeed dark days

I have long since given up being a stickler about comic-to-movie adaptations. I’m actually in favor of changes, cosmetic or otherwise, as long as it’s a good movie. I didn’t mind the all-leather X-Men costumes, or that weird homemade costume in the first Amazing Spider-Man, or even the original red leather Daredevil costume. But like everybody else, I’ve got my favorites!

Join me after the jump to see my six favorite superhero (or villain) costumes at the movies!

6. Black Widow

I wonder what her instructions were like for her tailor…

Black Widow’s costumes started out small, but by the time she was an established Avenger in Age of Ultron, she’d picked up a lot of fun accouterments that really push her to the top. The blue piping, the cool wrist weapons, and the sleek, overall blackness make for a solid superhero costume. It’s also both comics accurate and movie cool.

5. Quicksilver – Age of Ultron

The hair plays

This outfit is growing on me. When we first saw the new Quicksilver costume in on-set photos, it looked silly. It’s a weird shirt sort of thing, and the hair isn’t that great. But I’m a Quicksilver fan, and out of all the comic characters who have graced the big screen as movie Avengers, he’s probably my favorite. I liked what I saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron (except for…you know…), and seeing the costume in action was a lot better. It’s not tights, and it’s not his weird robin’s egg blue unitard from the comic. But it’s sleek, stylish and definitely fits the character’s roll.

And it’s a million times better from that gaudy monstrosity from X-Men: Days of Future Past.

4. Multiple Man

The one reason I can never completely disown The Last Stand

He only makes a brief couple of appearances in arguably the worst of the X-Men movies, but they get Jamie Madrox absolutely perfect in X-Men: The Last Stand (except for that ‘evil mutant’ part). He’s charming, he’s funny in that cool, sarcastic way, and his costume/clothing is so good that I actually tried to find a website that sells that T-shirt. Multiple Man has had some pretty gnarly comic book costumes in the past, but the filmmakers decided to go for the more modern, clothing-style approach, and it totally works! He’s got the iconic T-shirt, he’s got the stylish jacket, he’s got the relaxed attitude — now if only all this time travel and universe restructuring in the X-movies could give us a newer, better Madrox!

3. Joker – The Dark Knight

Poor Jared Leto…

I don’t care how much everybody loves Mark Hamill as the Joker, Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight has solidified him as the one and only Joker in my heart. The performance was other-worldly, and the character he and Director Christopher Nolan created is chillingly cool. The messy hair and makeup are great, and that purple suit is even better. Joker loves him some purple suits, but there’s just something so grungy yet dapper about Ledger’s Joker attire that fits everything to a T. Everything about that role changed the way I view the character.

2. Iron Man

Still awesome!

The Iron Man armor is a work of art. It’s no surprise he’s the most popular Marvel superhero at the movies, and not just because Robert Downey Jr. is amazing in the role. Iron Man just looks like a sleek, robotic badass. Those scenes in the first movie where he races with the fighter jets are still fantastic all these years later. Iron Man has worn a lot of clunky suits of armor in the comics, but the modern sensibilities that went into designing his armors across all sequels have been spot on.

1. Ant-Man

I’m saving up for the action figure

I know Ant-Man is still the most recent superhero movie, but I’ve loved his costume from the moment I first saw it. It’s perfect. The colors look great, the helmet is glorious, and the whole thing looks like a functional, technological super suit. Either Marvel is getting better at designing costumes or the Ant-Man uniform just works that well. In fact, Ant-Man became one of my favorite characters specifically because of his costume. Like most of the Avengers, I just never particularly cared for Ant-Man or Giant Man or Hank Pym or whatever. But then in the late 90s, Scott Lang joined the Avengers and was given this amazing, insectoid costume.

That’s all it took to get me hooked, and Scott Lang has been on my radar ever since as a character to watch. And while that comic costume isn’t the only inspiration for the movie Ant-Man suit, the same aesthetic is there, and that’s why I love the movie suit so much. It just looks so neat!

—–——–

Those are my choices, what about yours? What are your favorite hero or villain costumes in the movies? Do you like the classics, like Christopher Reeves’ Superman? Or does the X-Men leather really toot your horn? Let me know in the comments!

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About Sean Ian Mills

Hello, this is Sean, the Henchman-4-Hire! By day I am a mild-mannered newspaper reporter in Central New York, and by the rest of the day I'm a pretty big geek when it comes to video games, comic books, movies, cartoons and more.

Personally I loved that movie Daredevil costume too. But even though i thought it looked great, i always wonder at how inappropriate it might be. I mean, leather can make a lot of noise, and if he’s going for stealth, that can hinder things. But even worse, he’d sweat like a sunuvabitch in that suit, so that it would be pretty gross when he finally peeled it off. Just sayin.